In a heavily secured workshop in Southern England is one man’s multi-million pound personal motorcycle collection. It includes more MotoGP bikes and World Superbikes than even the Ducati factory itself owns. Rumoured to be worth in the region of £50,000,000. We were let in to the secret location for a quick look round, and still can’t quite believe what we saw.

Even fancied a visit in Bologna, Italy at the Ducati Museum, but you're simply too far away and the trip would be too expensive? Well, you can still take a virtual tour of the museum, as long as you're connected to the Internet and can access Google Maps.

Cool use of Google StreetView technology by submitting a walk around the MotoCorsa showroom during it's month long vintage Ducati display. The display will be open January 8th through 31st. Tuesday through Saturday. 10am – 6pm.

Ducati superbikes are a legend in their own right, with a racing career the spans much father back in history than just the past two decades. Grabbing press kits for the 2012 EICMA show though, I stumbled across these photos from the Ducati Museum at Borgo Panigale factory....

For the rest of the timeline photos of Ducati Superbike magic, click HERE

Though motorcyclists typically associate desmodromics with Italian Ducatis, the term doesn’t have Latin roots.

WORDS: Alan CathcartPHOTOS: Kel EdgeThough motorcyclists typically associate desmodromics with Italian Ducatis, the term doesn’t have Latin roots. It’s actually derived from two Greek words: desmos, meaning controlled, and dromos, for the run, or track, an object follows. In engineering terms, it refers to a valvetrain that opens and closes its valves positively, using a solid lever mechanism instead of a spring. British engineer F. H. Arnott obtained the frst patents for a desmodromic valve system in 1910, and the frst practical application of the technology appeared in the Peugeot L76 racer that won the 1913 Indianapolis 500. But Ducati remains the only frm on two wheels or four to have successfully applied desmodromics to mass production.It therefore makes sense that “Desmo Story,” a year-long exhibit chronicling the history of desmodromic valve actuation, is hosted by the Museo Prunaro in Budrio, 15 miles east of Ducati’s factory in Bologna. “Bologna was the Città Desmodromica in the 1950s, when no fewer than six different car and bike manufacturers in this area were working on desmo engine designs,” says Ducati’s Technical Director Gianluigi Mengoli, organizer of this exhibit. “I regarded it as a duty as well as a pleasure to help Ducati enthusiasts understand the history and development of the desmo concept.”

I thought my visit to the Museo Morbidelli in Pesaro, Italy would be the usual motor-museum thing; bored receptionist to greet you, a wander around looking between bike and the corresponding information card stuck on wall, bike, card, bike, card, bike, card.This visit however, was going to be a little bit different...Instead of a bored receptionist, the first person I met was the man himself, Giancarlo Morbidelli, and he wasn't bored at all, he was attempting to mow the front lawn with an uncooperative electric mower. I suggested he give up on the mower and try a pair of scissors but the joke didn't translate very well into Italian and he looked at me like I was 'special'. We soon hit it off though when he discovered I was an Australian with a girlfriend from Pesaro; later in the afternoon, when his friends dropped by for a chat (including Marco Benelli of Motobi) he had great fun in introducing me as the Australian who’d come to steal their women!

Art, artefacts, motorcycles. Where are the world’s best private collections?

Some of the most fascinating museums in the world were, at their very start, private collections of artwork, relics, natural ephemera or elaborate playthings put on display by their curious and wealthy owners. Hence the private museum was born. Today more and more collectors are putting their treasures on view in grand, spacious and eclectic spaces. Here are some must-see privately owned museums....

The WDW is a huge party for all the bikers and also for Ducati itself!Therefore, from Tuesday 19 to Monday 25 June, the Ducati Factory and Museum, which is open to the public all year round, will reserve the even warmer welcome for the WDW2012 participants.

During this period it is not necessary to book a guided tour, as they will continue in rotation from 9.30 a.m. to 4 p.m.The Museum will be open to visitors until 5.30 p.m.

On Saturday June 23, the factory will only be open in the morning, from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The last factory tour will start at 12.00 noon, while the Museum will close at 1.30 p.m., to allow everyone to travel to Misano for the grand finale event on the Saturday evening.

Guided tours during the WDW2012 will only cost Euros 5 for those who purchase a 4-day pass on-line. You can purchase your ticket during the same online session of your WDW pass purchasing....more

A 1982 Ducati 900 Mike Hailwood Replica at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa.

To commemorate legendary British racer Mike Hailwood's triumphant win in the 1978 Isle of Man TT race, this replica became Ducati's best seller in the early 1980s. It was produced from 1979 until 1986 and was based on a restyled and customized 900 SuperSport. Wearing the red, green and white of the Italian flag, the MHR was an 860cc V-twin with desmodromic valve train. The Gran Prix-style front fairing was originally one piece, but was later split into two sections for better access to the mechanics beneath....more

Dr. Simeone (right) is seen with a motorcycle buff, Cook Neilson, in a Classic Motorcycle Show held at his museum at his museum last August. (Photo by David Back) The museum boasts the nation’s largest collection of Alfa Romeos, the premier racing sport car in the 1930s.

Hill physician prescribes speed for car buffsby Lon MancinelliThe spirit of competition is the theme of the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, located along the industrial corridor behind the Phila. International Airport at 6825-31 Norwitch Drive in a former engine-remanufacturing plant. It was founded in 2008 by former chairman of neurosurgery at Pennsylvania Hospital and 75-year-old Chestnut Hill resident, Dr. Fred Simeone.The museum was named the 2011 Museum of the Year by the International Historic Motoring Awards at a November black tie ceremony in London, competing against major racing car museums in Europe. The panel featured judges Jay Leno, a racing sports cars enthusiast, vintage car racer and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Pebble Beach chief judge Ed Gilbertson, five times Le Mans winner Derek Bell and Lady Susie Moss, wife of racing icon Sir Stirling Moss, among others....More

Recognition has been granted to the company from Borgo Panigale for their archives and the Ducati museum by the regional government and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities: they are testimony to the company's products and of great importance to national and international history.

Ducati should be conserved like an archaeological site. That is no exaggeration. The Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Regional Office of Cultural and Natural Heritage of Emilia Romagna have announced that Ducati's historical archives and museum are of such historical and cultural interest as to warrant a place in the archival heritage of the territory. The archives and the museum are deemed to match the standards of company archives and constitute a document of Ducati's activity which becomes a historical testimony with the passing of time. The vast archive of documents from Ducati's Technical Office and the museum's collection of engines and motorbikes tell the story of Ducati's activity and production from 1946 to the present and are of great interest for local, national and international history.

MADE IN ITALY — This important recognition is a reward for the emphasis the Bologna-based motorcycle manufacturer places on its historical and cultural heritage: an added value for one of Italy's most iconic companies, whose brand and products are known and loved throughout the world.

From the Ducati.net archives - Ducati 200 Muletto. Built in the late 50's to meet Italian working transportaion needs and compete with Piaggio's Ape which was and remains a daily part of the Italian transportation workforce from farms to the inner cities

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